Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 42

At some point, she must have collapsed and fallen asleep.

Aubrianna shook her head. She wanted to shake off the terrible dream she had just seen.

As a piece of straw fell from her hair, her fingers pressing against the floor tightened.

“Haah.”

The sound of the baby babbling and Kaeloc’s voice telling her to marry him lingered in her ears.

“Was everything a dream?” she muttered in confusion, and then someone called her.

“Aubrianna?”

She lifted her head, but it was completely dark. Seeing not even the slightest light, it seemed night had fallen.

‘What day is it today?’

She couldn’t even estimate how much time had passed.

Then the voice came again.

“Is that Aubrianna in there?”

The faint voice, lowered so as not to be caught, sounded familiar.

It wasn’t a hallucination?

“Lien?”

“Aubrianna!”

She hurried over and grabbed the bars. Only then could she see a small figure standing in front of them.

“How did you get here….”

“I asked Carlo for help.”

Lien rummaged inside her cloak and pulled out a bundle, holding it out to her.

“You haven’t eaten anything, right? They say people thrown into prison are starved for three days as an example.”

“Thank you.”

She hadn’t even realized she was hungry. As Aubrianna carefully received the bundle, Lien began asking urgently.

“The baby? You met the duke, right? Yes? Are you okay?”

Then suddenly, she began to sob.

“That’s a relief.”

“Why are you suddenly crying?”

“You’re alive. I thought you and the baby were doomed to die in the snowfield.”

Through the bars, a thin arm reached out and grabbed Lien’s hand.

“I’m okay. The baby is okay too. I met the duke in the snowfield. So we came back together.”

Sniffling, Lien nodded. “I know. They say you have to be punished for abducting the duke.”

Lien told her about the rumors spreading through the ducal castle and the city.

“They’re saying you’re a witch who confined and brainwashed the duke who lost his memory.”

“But I was trapped in the snowfield.”

People are only interested in stories that are easy to gossip about. What someone actually went through doesn’t matter to them.

“And one more thing.”

Lien pressed herself close to the iron bars.

“The duke has returned.”

“Lien? You have to go now.”

From beyond the corridor, Carlo’s hushed voice could be heard.

Lien whispered urgently, “If I get to see him, I’ll make sure to tell him you’re here.”

After Lien hurried away, Aubrianna stood still and clenched her fists tightly. She felt sick at the sight of herself still trapped here, unable to do anything, yet she was relieved that Kaeloc had returned to the ducal castle.

‘This time is different.’

Yes, it’s different. It has to be different.

Theo is alive, and Kaeloc is no longer indifferent to me.

‘I will survive.’

Aubrianna gripped the iron bars tightly and made up her mind.

***

“Oh? That wench was caught?”

Cedric looked at Sion with his legs spread in a lax, arrogant posture.

“She is charged with luring and confining the duke.”

“What? Hahaha!”

Cedric burst out laughing.

“You mean that Kaeloc? That’s quite an amusing story.”

Cedric recalled the time he had visited the ducal castle as a child to see his aunt.

“You never grow at all.”

He remembered what Eloise used to say every time she saw him. Beside her stood Kaeloc, who had always been bigger than others his age.

“That scrawny woman who wasn’t even a handful confined Kaeloc? Hey, Sion. Don’t you think whatever verdict I give tomorrow will be a laughingstock?”

Sion stood with one hand behind his back, looking at Cedric without expression.

Shining black eyes and vile-looking gray eyes collided.

“It seems Lord Cedric is not yet accustomed to the authority of the Tennant family.”

“What?”

Cedric’s face flushed, thinking he was being mocked for lacking authority.

“Even if it is temporary, you are now the head of the Tennant ducal house of the North.”

In an emotionless voice, Sion tilted his wine glass and took a sip.

Step. Step.

Sion began to walk.

“When you go to the capital, you can stay in the royal palace, assist the king, and command all the northern troops. You can also use vast lands and wealth as you wish. What is there to fear?”

The man, who had been circling the reception room, stopped within Cedric’s line of sight.

Eyes filled with disgust glanced briefly at the back of the woman’s head moving beneath the chair, then turned toward Cedric, who stood there with his mouth open in a daze.

“There will be no one to object to your judgment.”

“So why should I bother with that troublesome task? We can handle it without a trial.”

Cedric grabbed the woman’s hair and began to shake it. Soon, a filthy, muffled moan was forced from her throat.

“I don’t want to get involved in Kaeloc’s affairs.”

A vein throbbed at Sion’s temple as he opened his mouth. “I will smooth over the matter of the girl who died this time.”

“What? I already settled that by stuffing them with money.”

“If you had just kept to touching prostitutes as you usually do, there wouldn’t have been any trouble….”

Sion curled one corner of his lips in a mocking smile and set the wine glass down on the table. “The girl’s family is demanding more money. They say if we don’t meet their demands, they’ll go to the capital and report it to the royal palace.”

To be precise, they threatened to tip off a newspaper and expose everything throughout the royal palace.

“Sion, you’re the duke’s aide, so aren’t you my aide as well? Handling things like that is your job!”

As if his mood had been ruined, Cedric shoved the woman away roughly. The naked woman, crouched on the floor, pulled on the cloak given by a servant and staggered out of the reception room.

“My job… in that case, Lord Cedric should also do his own job. She is a woman who committed a serious crime. Moreover, she is a brazen one who abducted the young master and fled to the dangerous snowfield.”

Cedric gestured as if telling him to get to the point. Meanwhile, a maid brought water and began carefully wiping Cedric’s cock with a damp towel.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

He spoke lazily, grabbing the young maid’s chin and turning it this way and that, then, apparently displeased with her looks, pushed her shoulder away with his foot. The maid who fell backward quickly got up, gathered the basin and towel, and left while trembling.

“Tomorrow, you will demonstrate the authority of the head of the house. You will issue an expulsion order so that the woman who committed the crime can never return to the North.”

It was better if Aubrianna was not here.

For Sion, it was unacceptable that Kaeloc, who had always been cold, rational, and never wavered, was being swayed by a single woman just because he had lost his memory.

“Is there really a need to send her far away? What if I make her my slave as punishment?”

His preference was for young and pure women. But recalling Aubrianna’s appearance from before, his mouth watered.

‘Regardless of taste, she’s the kind of beauty any man would want to have.’

Thinking of her soft white skin and her ample breasts, Cedric licked his lips.

“The Kingdom of Trilan has already banned slavery for a hundred years.”

Sion downed the remaining wine in one gulp and set the glass down with a thud.

“Then I’ll look forward to tomorrow. Lord Cedric.”

Sion quickly left the reception room and asked Razen.

“What about the duke?”

“Not yet. The medicine is working well. It seems he won’t wake until tomorrow evening.”

But they couldn’t let their guard down.

He had the monstrous stamina of someone who had survived a near-fatal wound and returned from the harsh snowfield.

“Did you see the face of the young maid who just left?”

“…Yes.”

She had been trembling as she left, so he had asked what was wrong, but she ran away crying with a frightened face.

“Tell Harick to send that maid somewhere other than the main building. And for the time being, use older, experienced maids at the residence of the acting head.”

Sion continued issuing instructions as he walked quickly, “Now that the duke has returned, raise the basic training level of the soldiers. They’ve had enough rest, so it’s time to start again.”

Huh! When did he even see that?

Razen clicked his tongue in disbelief but nodded.

Sion had played a major role in maintaining the ducal castle, which had been falling into chaos in the duke’s absence.

“The duke needs to come to his senses soon.”

As he muttered without thinking, Sion suddenly turned back.

“He has only lost his memory. Once he regains it, everything will return to its proper place.”

Sion turned his body just like that and strode off.

“But!”

Razen, who had been about to say more, shut his mouth and scratched his head.

‘What if he gets his memory back and still keeps acting like this?’

To put it bluntly, it looked like he might even marry Aubrianna.

The way he acted blindly, as if Aubrianna were the only woman in the world, made him look like an immature young soldier.

“Marriage… will that even work?”

Marriages between nobles and commoners weren’t common, but they did happen occasionally.

But a high-ranking noble like a duke marrying not even a commoner but a maid. Wouldn’t that be difficult even with a royal decree?

The northern noble council would probably rise up, claiming they were being looked down on.

Razen tilted his head, then narrowed his eyes and shook his head as if it gave him a headache.

“Ah! I don’t know. They’ll figure it out themselves.”

Razen rolled one shoulder and hurried after Sion.

“Sir Sion! Let’s go together!”